1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a data processing system, more particularly to a deduction inference system coupled to a plurality of sensor elements, a display device, and an actuator mechanism. The deduction inference system processes stimulus sensor signals received from responding sensor elements. Each sensor signal uniquely identifies condition/status information representative of the particular sensor element transmitting that signal.
Using preestablished knowledge rules previously programmed into its database, the deduction inference system is capable of executing and solving a "non NP-complete" deduction inference based on the inputted stimulus sensor signals. The resulting data can then be presented onto a display device as a user friendly "smart" informational message.
The resulting data can also be used by the coupled actuator mechanism to "robotically" control electro-mechanical devices to provide a real-time response to changing condition/status information transmitted form the plurality of sensor elements.
2. Description of the Related Art
A computer executed algorithm is referred to as "NP-Complete" if the executing time required to carry a deduction inference to completion increases exponentially as the number of transmitted stimulus sensor signals is increased.
A stimulus sensor signal, in the present context, is the output signal associated with a sensor element (such as a temperature gauge, a light measuring device, a speedometer, etc.).
The stimulus sensor signal is one of possibly hundreds or thousands of such signals that are fed simultaneously into a deduction inference system for generating a "smart" response.
A response is defined as "smart" when the processing entity, i.e., the human brain or data processing system, is capable of using preestablished associational logic stored therein, to make informed, real-time deductions based on inputted stimulus sensor signals.
Because NP-complete deduction inference algorithms require, for all practical purposes, near infinite execution time to generate a "smart" response when the number of sensor elements contributing to that response exceed several hundred or more elements, the practical use of conventional deduction inference tools presently in use in modern deduction inference systems has yet to be efficiently discerned.
Prolog (PROgramming in LOGic) is one such popular deduction inference tool widely used with modern deduction inference systems to generate, in NP-complete execution time, "smart" responses for applications requiring real-time interaction to a severely limited number of sense stimuli.
Furthermore, extremely rigid restrictions for expressing negative statements make Prolog greatly inadequate for designing both simple and complex knowledge rules necessary for generating the deduced response.